The Batman: Of Poison Ivy and Green Grass
by Lewascan2
Summary: Batman wasn't fast enough. Coincidentally, Barbara Gordon wasn't quite up to snuff either. So trying to save her friend Pamela Isley from a toxic fate at Chlorogene, she ended up joining her in the mound of plant chemicals. Will Barbara now have a chance of pulling her best friend away from a life of crime, or will Ivy drag her down into the dark?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own The Batman or any of it's aspects. All I might own are the altered parts of the plot of this non-profit work of fiction.**

 **An: WHY?! Why are there literally like only TWO other stories with this AU plot?! You could even call it one, since one of those two sucks and the other is hard to find. Anywho, let's do this thing!**

 **I don't even know where this story's title came from...**

Ch 1: _Well_ , that could have gone better...

 **Chlorogene Research Labs-**

" _Temblor_?" Barbara Gordon accused Pamela Isley with a stern scowl -hands on her shapely hips, as she glared down her wayward, protestor friend. "Is he a friend from homeroom?" she snipped out sarcastically.

"Ah-heh," Pamela shrugged, snapping her black laptop closed and standing up from her position sitting against a wall outside the entrance to Chlorogene Research Labs. "Look like you caught me red-handed, Red," she grinned guiltlessly.

Barbara scoffed and stomped up to Pamela, glaring mightily. "Did one of your twigs _snap_ , Pam?" she jibed out harshly, referencing the taller fellow red-head's borderline obsessive nature towards plants and their protection thereof. "You hired a _thug_!"

"You'd be _surprised_ what you can find on the internet," Pamela waved Barbara off dismissively.

Barbara gave her friend a sad look. " _Pam_ , it's not too late; you have to _stop_ this." She sighed in near resignation. "I don't want to have to watch my dad read you your rights."

"Tch, and here I thought we were two peas in a pod," Pamela snorted with touch of foreign hostility in her tone. She glared and began to stride away -head lowered. "Shoulda' _known_ I couldn't trust the Commish's kid. I'll miss ya', Red."

Barbara's turned her head, and her eyes widened in alarm at what Pamela was walking carelessly towards. Pamela looked up and gasped in fear.

Before her, stood the giant-like, trench coat-clad, gauntleted form of Temblor, the mercenary she had been scamming in order to have him destroy the Chlorogene facilities in Gotham.

"Well, _well_ ," Temblor rumbled. A single gauntlet shot out and easily snatched Pamela's laptop from her arms. Flicking it open, Temblor grinned maliciously. Lem'me see how this works." He tapped a button and said into the small mike, "Testing." **"Testing,"** growled out his altered voice in response. His grin only widened, and he crushed the laptop into scrap with a gesture. "You are not at _all_ how I picture you... _Boss,_ " he finished mockingly, rounding on the girls. Pamela backed away fearfully. "You see, the way it works, Boss, is when you don't pay," He slammed his gauntlets together, causing them to spark yellow in a menacing way, that did nothing to reassure the girls and promised a painful end. "You _pay~_."

"H-hey, we're good sports," Barbara interjected nervously, stepping between Temblor and the back-tracking Pamela. "We'll uh... We'll raise the funds with a bake sale?"

Temblor lowered his shades from his forehead to his eyes and smirked.

"You like brownies?" Barbara tried again futilely. Mentally, she was screaming, _'Damn it! Why_ now _of all times do I suddenly have to become fluent in annoying super hero taunts?! WHY NOW?!'_

Temblor gave her a flat look and cranked up the yellow dials on both his gauntlets; Barbara blanched in response.

"Later, Red!" Pamela called suddenly, bolting for the front doors of the labs. "You two have _fun_."

 _'Well, throw me to the wolves why don't you?'_ Barbara groused internally at the girl's back, before turning back to the immediate threat. _'I'm beginning to wonder what her definition of fun is and if I should be worried. On a side note, she is in such shit, if -_ no, when- _we get out of this.'_

Temblor suddenly lunged with a pair of horizontal haymakers. Barbara skipped and summersaulted away, barely managed to keep herself from being flattened like a human pancake outright. She landed in a crouch. "I'm _warning_ you. "I'm-I'm an Olympic hopeful." The wavering of her voice only resulted in Temblor grinning and being silently encouraged to try just a _tad_ harder.

"Grah!" Temblor grunted, slamming his right gauntlet into the ground with a flash and rumble.

Barbara's eyes bugged out of her head, as the ground erupted -not unlike an earthquake- and rushed towards her. Barbara turned on her heel and sprinted like the hounds of Hell were on her tail -even as the area around her was blown to smithereens. A large chunk of the pavement suddenly launched upwards from beneath her. Barbara stumbled but managed to leap to another area, only to have to flip away from that spot as well, as it shared the fate of her former position. Once again jumping to safety, Barbara landed heavily and awkwardly, only for the largest pavement boulder yet to erupt from directly where she had landed. Surprised and unable to regain her balance, Barbara tumbled backwards in an uncontrolled roll and slammed headfirst into the cracked pavement, falling unconscious.

That nuisance taken care of, Temblor strode passed her form nonplussed and blew the doors to the lab off their hinges with a metallic crash.

* * *

The inside of the large, metal lab smelled outdoorsy and was scattered with experimental plants and chemicals. Temblor briefly paused to glance at a vine of altered tomatoes set next to an example of a regular tomato vine. "Mutant tomatoes... yum," smirked Temblor. Perhaps when he was done dealing with the bespectacled brat, he would indulge in the vegetables.

Stalking deeper into the bowels of the factory, Temblor glanced around lazily, searching for the target of his wrath. The screeching sound of metal above him, caused the mercenary to quickly look up.

Upon a high, steel balcony, Pamela Isley was pushing small generator. Sending it over the edge, she growled, "You've been _terminated_." Except that, Temblor batted the heavy machinery away with little more than a bat of an eye. He grinned all too smugly. "Uh, heh heh heh," Pamela chuckled nervously, and she dashed away on the walkway.

Temblor was having none of that and slammed a hand down, sending an explosive tremor into one of the walkway's support beams and bringing down a heavy pipe from the ceiling, that smashed through the walkway. Pamela cried out in pain, as she fell all the way to the ground and landed on a lowered lift, having her lags pinned down by heavy debris.

Pamela groaned in pain, gritting her teeth and attempting to remove the rubble, as Temblor stalked over and raised a hand, preparing to blow her into oblivion.

But just in the nick of time, Batman arrived and swung in on a line, knocking Temblor to the ground and causing his explosion to go wide in the opposite direction. The entire building shook dangerously, as Temblor immediately picked himself up and turned to face the new arrival. Glancing above Batman's head, Temblor spotted two large, precariously-swinging canisters of toxic plant growth hormone sludge.

Smashed his gauntlets into a nearby pillar, Temblor sent one of the canisters hurtling to the ground and caused the second one to crack. Batman dodged wide, as the contents of the canister were blown all over the floor. The Dark Knight narrowed his eyes, as the dangerous chemicals managed to somehow begin growing plant life from nothing out of itself.

Temblor sent a pair of separate tremors towards Batman, that the vigilante dodged by leaping high -even as something exploded violently in the background, framing the dark outline of his cowled form.

The newly-recovered and arrived, rubbing the back of her aching head, Barbara Gordon had a front row seat to such a sight and muttered with a gasp, "The Batman."

Batman landed a dropkick on Temblor, that sent the larger man sprawling regardless of superior size and fired off a batarang.

"And he... He is awesome," Barbara said to herself with a wide smile.

As Batman rolled away from a more precise tremor, Barbara heard the shout of Pamela. "Red, help! I can't move!" A definitive cracking noise got Pamela to look up in horror at the badly damaged and worsening canister of chemicals above her. "Oh no. Toxic sludge!"

"Oh no. Hang on Red!" Barbara called, dashing across the room towards Pamela.

Batman hurled several explosive pellets at Temblor, but the massive man absorbed the damage with his gauntlets and swept away the smoke. A second later, he unleashed a tremor aimed for Batman, that flipped Batman over onto his back heavily and moved on towards Barbara. Barbara stumbled heavily but managed to ride the tremor's explosion closer to her friend, though it left her dazed from the collision with the concrete floor.

The sludge canister groaned in painful warning, and Pamela began to panic. "That stuff _mutates_ plants; I don't want to see what it does to humans!"

Barbara groaned and shook off the rest of her dizziness, reaching the lift and desperately clambering on. The girls frantically began tugging and pushing off the scrap that pinned Pamela's legs.

Batman groaned, as Temblor raised his gauntlets for a stronger, duel strike. "Here comes the big one," he cackled. Batman lurched upward and twirled out a cord that caught both Temblor's charged gauntlets and slammed them together, resulting in a blinding explosion that shook the building, hurled Temblor backwards into a previously damaged pillar, and collapsed said pillar.

For the toxin canister, that was the final straw, and it burst over the red-heads, dumping it's green dust-like contents down on them. Batman lurched and turned at Pamela's scream, and Barbara barely had time to look surprised before the two were buried completely in a massive cloud of fumes and chemicals. Batman immediately hurled a batarang into the lift controls, raising the two girls high out of the green cloud.

Barbara choked and heaved as the toxins invaded her system. She could feel them burning all over her skin, and her lungs, and eyes, and muscles. Every fiber of her body hurt, and her vision was blurring mightily, as her chest constricted. Pamela appeared to be unconscious; thank Arkham for small mercies, 'cause she felt like hell. Then her vision darkened, and everything went black. Her last thoughts were of hoping her dad wouldn't strangle Pam while she was down.

* * *

 **Later-**

Commissioner Gordon watched worriedly as the paramedics wheeled Barbara and Pamela into the back of an ambulance. He couldn't help but have a small panic attack at the fact that both girls were apparently currently toxic to the touch and sparkling strangely from whatever horrid chemical compound they had been so heavily exposed to.

He sighed and slumped near imperceptibly. Perhaps with a miracle, they could analyze the compound and create a successful antidote to any adverse affects. He wouldn't have hoped for such things if he had known what was coming next...

* * *

 **The Ambulance-**

Moments after departure, Pamela Isley flinched in her sleep and a green glow briefly emanated from beneath her eyelids. A few moments later, a similar glow flickered a few times beneath Barbara's closed eyelids as well. As the medical vehicle made its' way towards the nearest hospital, it was suddenly forced to brake by the massive trunk and stems of a sakura tree erupting from the concrete and snatching the ambulance off the road. As the vehicle lurched, the driver was knocked unconscious by a deploying airbag, and the backseat medic was dazed by the lack of cushioning.

The back of the vehicle was ripped open, and the lone, conscious, bespectacled medic had the presence of mind to throw his coat over Barbara and snatch her from her stretcher and toss her through the window to the driver's seat, shutting it behind her moments before he was knocked unconscious by a vine.

The branches of the sakura tree slowly, delicately began to slip themselves beneath Pamela, snapping her handcuffs and carrying her out of the vehicle and into the ground. Another branch seemed to take pause on weather or not to retrieve the other girl as well, but the sound of sirens fast approaching seemed to make up its' 'mind'. The doors were no obstacle and were easily rent asunder for the plant to retrieve their prize.

Each one would be brought somewhere where they felt safe. If that happened to be completely separate locations, then so be it. The second tree carried the unconscious Barbara away into the depths of the earth and then began tunneling to where the girl would feel most secure.

* * *

 **Gotham Greenhouse-**

Out of the ground, massive vines and trees began to sprout wildly as well as a large, pink pod filled with liquid wherein rested a sleeping Pamela Isley

* * *

 **Gordon House-**

In the hardly-used backyard of the Gordon household, the ground began to quietly rumble before sprouting a large, glowing, pink pod on a giant stem, which held a certain, unconscious girl floating in an unidentifiable liquid.

Around the backyard, more and taller trees began to grow, slowly forming an unseen canopy out of the house's backyard to shield their precious cargo.

It would be only moments earlier that Jim Gordon had received a call about the missing girls and rushed out to the site of the ambulance's destruction, thus missing all this happening in his literal own backyard.

* * *

 **Later-**

As the police force interrogated the drivers, Batman used tweezers to gather a small, shriveled leaf. His eyes narrowed to suspicious slits, and he tucked the leaf away in a plastic bag. Coincidence? Batman didn't believe in coincidences.

 **AN: Like it? Hate it? Something there that could have been done better? I actually think this story might get a lot of attention due to the aforementioned lacking on Fanfiction in this particular AU.**

 **R &R! No flames if you can help it, or Ivy might strangle you. Poor plants. :D**


	2. Rebirth

**Disclaimer: Don't own The Batman or any of it's aspects. All I might own are the altered parts of the plot of this non-profit work of fiction.**

 **AN: *silence***

 ***cricket chirps***

 **Just feelin' the love... Yep. All the love.**

 ***cricket chirps* =_='**

 **I think the hardest part about this AU is getting it started in a way that _works_. Most of last chapter was a prologue with slightly altered content from the source. Now I'm about ready to really go AU.**

 **This chapter takes place barely hours after Barbara and Pamela are first plant-napped from the ambulance. If one were to pay close attention to the dialogue in the second episode of season 3, they would see that Ivy comes to visit Barbara in the same night she first is exposed to the Chlorogene chemicals.**

 **It is shown in the episode that Pamela seems to gain instinctual knowledge of her powers. I found that odd, and so I assume it's through a mental connection to plants, that are brought to life through her mutation. As in, every plant within a city-wide radius of her seems to gain a consciousness of sorts.**

 **I don't even know where this story's title came from...**

Ch 2: Rebirth

It felt like an eternity -when in reality it was hardly half the night- before consciousness finally prickled at the edge of Barbara Gordon's mind. And even in whatever state she might be, the teenage girl managed to latch onto that flicker and hurl herself back into the land of the living. There was a loud crackling sound and a feeling like water rushing over her head, and Barbara's vision finally returned from blackness.

The first thing that Barbara noticed was she was having difficulty standing, and thus she collapsed from the standing position she awoke in onto her backside. Surprisingly, it was not an unpleasant forced sit, as she had fallen into the soft, shard-like remains of what had once been a pink cocoon.

Looking down, Barbara could see that she currently occupied the tip-top of a surprisingly-comfortable, bushy tree, which held her several yards above the ground. All around her, Barbara's gaze found only plant life, till she did a 180 and saw what looked to be the back of her house.

"H-huh? What the heck is going on?" Barbara stumbled to her feet again and nearly fell from where she stood if not for a new branch lunging up for her to grab onto and steady herself on her perch. "Uh... Thanks?" She gave the branch a little pat. What do you even say to a plant? And for a moment, she almost got the feeling it 'talked' back to her, but that was nonsense.

Shaking her head, Barbara looked for a way down with a frown, only for the tree she stood on to lurch as if on command and gently bring her down to the ground. Barbara couldn't help but look around wide-eyed; it was all so surreal. Reaching the bottom, Barbara was finally feeling a little easier on her feet, and she stepped down to sit in the grass.

It did occur to Barbara suddenly that she was wearing practically nothing, and when she looked she appeared to be adorned in a strapless dress of leaves that went halfway down her thighs. Perplexed by the anomaly, she pulled a single leaf from the dress, but it grew back a split second later. She could see her skin had paled dramatically, looking almost white but having a nigh unnoticeable, green undertone, and said skin felt as soft as velvet.

She picked a few more leaves from her dress and, seeing them regrow consistently, looked at her skin. "This dress is... It's a part of me!" She grit her teeth and hesitantly dug a fingernail into her skin, piercing it, drawing -not red, but _green_ \- blood, and the wound healed up just as quickly as her dress regenerated. Now _that_ was freaky. "I'm _green_ and a _plant_! What was in that stuff?! Crap, what about Pam?" She got to her feet and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Red?! You there?" There was, of course, no answer.

Her shoulders slumped, and a large Bonsai tree grew to act as a chair for her to sit on. Barbara obliged, suddenly feeling rather tired. "What happened to me?" Giving a raised eyebrow to the tree she sat on, one of the ones that seemed to unconsciously do her bidding, Barbara decided to give something a shot.

Bringing her desire for a reflective surface into mind, Barbara was pleasantly surprised to have the tree's trunk extend by a large amount to bring her face-to-face with her reflection in the clear window of the her house's backyard door. She let out a low gasp and leaned in closer to see the changes more clearly.

It was her... and yet simplistically not. For one thing, she seemed to have lost her hairband somewhere -most likely dissolved by whatever green fluid had been running off her body when she awoke, and that had let her hair fall down for a short ways past her shoulders in enviable locks that softly curled like petals ever so subtly at the ends in a desirable way. What she had now was shoulder blade-length hair of a vibrant rose-red color in contrast to her past shiny, blood-red hair. It was just so red, that one might have trouble _not_ drawing attention.

On second glance, her skin that she previously dubbed as pale looked more tanned than her original peach skin with that earthy undertone still prevalent -no doubt due to the fact that her friggin' _blood_ was green. Perhaps it had been a trick of the light. On a related note, her lips had taken on a dark leaf-green color.

Perhaps the very most startling change to Barbara were her eyes. Where once she had a pair a shining, brown eyes, she now had a irises of a pale green so striking it could not be ignored. The fact that they were so pale gave them a quality that was most definitely _inhuman_ , and that bothered her just a bit.

Simply put, with her hair down in vibrant, red locks, pale, plant(apparently)-kissed skin, captivating, emerald eyes, and slim figure Barbara was absolutely gorgeous -stunning even, and she actually almost ended up preening. _'Note to self: going to have to start avoiding mirrors. Who knows how much better I'll look in a proper one.'_

Barbara shook her head in self-exasperation. "Damn, if Pam got hit with that same stuff, I imagine she's probably in the same boat as me. Actually..., she's probably _loving_ this: being half plant." She deadpanned. "If anything, I'm more than half by this point. Congrats, Barbara, you are now part of the next stage of human evolution... or plant... That's going to be tough to figure out." She gave herself a few dry claps of applause. _'And now you're talking to yourself... Great~.'_ Barbara sighed and reclined once more into the leaves of her tree-chair-couch-thing, who ( _'Not what? Attached rather quickly, are you?'_ she asked herself mentally) she was coming to enjoy quite quickly. "Now what?"

 _That_ _was_ actually a good question. Whatever had happened to her had obviously mutated her genetic structure on a cellular level; that's what the stuff was supposed to do to plants, anyway. It was almost positively irreversible without having fatal results. So she was stuck with this? Could her changes be hidden if need be? What if they couldn't? She still needed to go to school and -you know- actually socialize with people; her father would have a fit otherwise. Surely, she could just wear other clothes over her rather permanent leaf dress when need be. Her hair could easily be tied back once more, though it would never be the subtle, blood-red hue it had once been. Her lips? She could say she was trying new lipstick. Her eyes might be hard, so she'd would just do her best to pass them off for decorative color contacts.

And the less said about plants serving your every need reflexively the better. She could just see it now: the school would be absolutely decimated by all these trees and vines growing up around her suddenly. Barbara winced; these changes could be both a possible gift and a _curse_. The plant girl's mood darkened, and she began brooding a bit.

Suddenly brightening, Barbara sat up straighter and shrugged to herself. "Well, nothing I can do about it, so I might as well reap whatever benefits I've been afforded."

* * *

First of all, there was the near-instantaneous healing; that would be handy no matter what. Barbara wondered if there was a limit to it. How injured could she be before her new healing factor could no longer recover her? Did she heal bones and vital organs with just as much ease? Were those vital organs even still existent with her new plant biology? Did this healing factor make her more or less durable as the cost for the recovery? Could she control which parts of her body healed first if injured in multiple places? These questions could most likely only be answered in their own time -or if she ever somehow became imperiled enough to have to test them.

The second thing Barbara began to experiment with was her newfound Chlorokinesis. She saw how the plants around her responded to subconscious commands to act as an extension of her will. Did they respond just as well to conscious commands? Did only the plants she had grown herself fall under her purview, or could she just as easily manipulate previously grown flora? And what about the quiet, willowy whispers that she had started to pick up around her, when there was no one but plants about. _'Time to experiment.'_

Barbara decided to start small and gave a small wave of her hand. Mentally, she designated a specific number and was rewarded with perfectly-spaced 5 by 2 rows of assorted flowers. With a grin, Barbara tried some more waves and found that she could summon any number of either mixed breeds or specific types of flower in these rows. She also made some small and uneven, assorted wildflower patches.

Barbara's grin could have split her face. "This is _so_ cool."

Next, the giddy teenage girl made some verbal and nonverbal commands to the mutant plants around her. In both cases, the flora life immediately responded and obeyed with what almost seemed like enthusiasm, forming all manner of short and tall, squat and stick-thin trees and vines as well as shaped figures -like circles, squares, cones, hearts, and wooden statues that looked in need of more detail. Barbara found that adding directing arm motions got results faster from her commands.

She found that, yes, she _could_ manipulate pre-grown plants. Flowers, trees, and grass were all her play-things. Then, she began practicing some multitasking doing all these things by having her large Bonsai mount move all over the yard, while she directed other plants at the same time.

Barbara couldn't help but laugh, as she collapsed back on the soft, leafy limbs of her Bonsai tree. A sense of accomplishment accompanied her tired state of being. "Okay, Pamela, maybe this _was_ all worth it somewhat. I've got freaking _super powers_."

* * *

"What going on out here?!" And _that_ was when her father slammed open the door to the backyard, pistol in hand, and both occupants of the yard froze at the sight of each other. "Alright, hands in the air," he commanded. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" He lifted his gun, and Barbara stiffened in shock. He didn't outright recognize her! Her plants took her sudden distress as a sign that the life form before them was a threat to their 'Lady' and should be eliminated.

They lashed out at him too fast to be dodged, and Jim Gordon's eyes widened in surprise. One burrowed into his gun's barrel and shattered it, and several more wrapped around his limbs. Meanwhile, a third began to morph into a large, nasty venus flytrap and moved to bite his head off.

Barbara managed to shake off her shock enough to be horrified and call out, "NO! STOP!" They halted immediately, and she gave a great sigh of relief. " _Please_ , let him go now." The vines did, and Gordon looked markedly uncomfortable as they retracted into the soil, leaving him standing alone with his trashed pistol.

Barbara stood up from her Bonsai tree-chair and gestured her plants to back away, as she walked closer to Gordon with a nervous expression. Twiddling her thumbs, Barbara chuckled awkwardly. "I'm uh... _Yeah_. Sorry about that. They're like overzealous bodyguards, and I'm kinda' minutes new to the whole involuntary plant princess thing."

That had been a remarkably close call.

Something about that sentence rang several the alarm bells in Gordon's head and sent his detective senses tingling. His eyes narrowed. " _Who_ _are_ you?"

To his interest, the plant-person-girl-teen stiffened and shuffled in place with a pained expression. Her right arm reached up to rub her left one. " _Well_ , how about I counter that road of inquiry with a question of my own?" She winced. "You're a detective, Commissioner, one of the best on the force, _so_ who do _you_ think I am? Take a real good look and think about it." A loaded question if he ever did hear one.

Jim Gordon looked the girl over up and down, as she shuffled in place. A few of her plants tried to come to her, but she shooed them away. When he was finally done with most of his physical inspection, he set his hard expression on her face. Something about her eyes spoke of familiarity -even with their striking, green hue, but try as he might they just did not- Wait! The case! The plants! The Chlorogene chemicals! Barbara and Isley! Could the compound really do all _this_ to a person?!

At the spark of recognition and realization on his face, Barbara allowed herself a giggle and summoned a small vine to be formed into a hairband. Pulling back her rose-red locks into her favored low, messy ponytail hairstyle, Barbara snapped the plant band in place in her hair and lunged forward to embrace Jim Gordon. "Hey, Dad, I'm still alive."

He hugged Barbara back briefly in disbelief before holding her out at arms length. " _Barb_ , what happened to you? How did you get back here? Where's _Isley_?" His tone shifted to something more than a little less pleasant at her name.

"Well, I'd assume the whole _green_ thing is a result of whatever crap those egg-heads threw into that powdered sludge at the Chlorogene lab," Barbara remarked dryly to Jim Gordon's nod. "It was some sort of compound designed specifically to enhance plants through mutation Pamela told me. Problem is, that stuff is strong enough to grow its' _own_ frickin' plant life in _itself without_ seeds of any kind. In fact, I _saw_ it do just that before Pam and I got hazed. Just imagine how powerful an effect something like that would have on an exposed human being. It did exactly what it was designed to do: mutate plant life. But it mutated its _own_ plant life inside of me, mutated me, made me part plant. I think it's permanent, and I'm pretty sure Pam is in the same situation as me somewhere out there."

"But how did you get back? When?" Jim persisted.

Barbara gave a few placating waves of her hands. "Not sure about the when, but I guess the plants brought me here. They did it on their own too; I was unconscious at the time, and that's kinda' _creepy_!" At this exclamation, she shot the hybrid assortion of flora behind her a halfhearted glare, that they shrank away from.

Jim just shook his head at the sight and rubbed the bridge of his nose with a pair of calloused fingers. Incidents like this were becoming more and more common in Gotham as of late. Insane meta-humans like Joker, Clayface, and Mr. Freeze had begun showing up and wreaking large-scale havoc on the city, and only the vigilante, Batman, seemed to be equipped to handle them and toss them in Arkham.

And then there was people like Pamela, who had been bad-seeds _before_ they got ahold of power... Woah.

That was a scary thought, thinking about what she was doing now in assumedly the same position as Barbara.

He could only pray that these abilities did not negatively effect his daughter's mental health like so many meta-humans before her. The sight of her angrily berating a certain giant venus flytrap, whilst it shrank away in a guilty fashion, did nothing to reassure him.

"Barbara," he began.

She turned. "Hmm?"

"Are you okay?"

She gave him an odd look. "Uh... yeah, I guess. I mean, I'm as well as you can be after being turned into a _plant_." She paused and looked at the flytrap. " _Oh_ , you mean that? Well, it wasn't too clear before, but now when I really listen every plant has a sort of... 'voice' if you will. They aren't too articulate; just some one or two word phrases that convene needs and opinions. 'Course, only I can actually hear them, so I guess I _would_ look a little crazy yelling at a giant flytrap." She shrugged. "So now I'm suddenly the Plant Whisperer or whatever. Can't really do anything but deal with it."

"Ah..." he trailed off. What do you say to an answer like to that?

Barbara gave him a thoughtful, bordering-hurt look. "You don't... believe me?"

Gordon started, realizing how his silence had been taken. "No! No, I _do_. I do believe you, Barb. Believe me, I've seen some weird things on the job this past year -not that you're weird. This is nothing too unbelievable."

Barbara shrugged. "I suppose not." Her voice trailed off into an awkward silence between them. Finally, Barbara pursed her green-stained lips and gave them a pop with her exhale. " _So_... What now? I mean, I've kinda' got real-live _super powers_ now, so there's that..."

Jim chuckled quietly. "There _is_ that..." Internally, he was having a far more elaborate debate with himself. The arguments mostly revolved around weather to hide Barbara's new meta-human status and abilities or seek out someone to give her a medical and scientific once-over to determine wether her powers were self-destructive like Mr. Freeze's or not and wether they could be cured.

Jim sighed and decided that for now it would certainly be better to handle this without outside help, at least if/until it became necessary. Maybe the Batman... Yes, if anyone it would be Batman he called on first.

"Barb, the first thing you really need to do is get a handle on these new abilities of yours, and I don't think it's something I'll be able to help you with." The Commissioner lifted his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. "Your new genetic status is... Well, there's a lot of meta-human prejudice with the citizens of Gotham, since practically every other person like you -people with abilities far beyond the normal- is a super villain and causes them constant pain, death, and strife. And if you can't control or completely hide your changes, that prejudice and fear will likely use you as an innocent outlet."

"Yeah," Barbara consented with a wince. "That's a pretty good point." She huffed and flopped back onto her large Bonsai tree. "And here I thought these new powers would be all sunshine and literal roses. Guess it was a bit too good to be true."

"Now, Barbara, I'm not saying these changes are _all_ bad," her father said, "but you need to be responsible with this kind of power and above all _careful_. You can't mess around with this, Barb. It wouldn't be hard to recognize you if your powers were used in public; that shade of red hair is _definitely_ distinctive." He sighed. "Look, I've actually got to go back to the station, we still need to find Pamela. I'll let them know I've already found you, so we don't have missing person alerts in the news tomorrow."

He walked back to the backyard door before pausing. The police Commissioner let out a sigh. "Barb', I know I've told you a hundred times before, but... _this_ -though, most definitely not always as drastic- is the kind of thing that happens when you pull reckless stunts like today's, when you try to get involved with crime-fighting. The kind of people those powers can get you into trouble with..." He sighed again. "I don't want that life for you, so please try not to get involved. Isely has made herself into a criminal; this is police business now." Barbara frowned at that declaration but said nothing. If she had the power to do good, why shouldn't she?

And with that, the Commissioner was back inside, through the house, and out the front, driving off at a more sedate pace than he had arrived, and leaving Barbara sitting on her Bonsai with her brows scrunched together, as the newly-Chlorokinetic, teenage girl was left with her thoughts and her plants.

 **AN: Aaaannnd... DONE! Thought about having the meeting between Barbara and 'Ivy' this chapter but decided on having it the next one along with Batman's first fight against Poison Ivy. Not sure how I'm going to incorporate this Barbara into that fight -if at all...**

 **Meh, we'll see.**

 **R &R! And remember, Ivy's plants will likely strangle those pyromaniac reviewers.**


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